Still Midnight

Alex Morrow is not new to the police force - or to crime - but there is nothing familiar about the call she has just received. On a still night in a quiet suburb of Glasgow, Scotland, three armed men have slipped into a house, demanding a man who is not, and has never been, inside the front door. In the confusion that ensues, one family member is shot and another kidnapped, the assailants demanding an impossible ransom. Is this the amateur crime gone horribly wrong that it seems, or something much more unexpected?

I don't usually enjoy books about terrorism with plots involving ethnic factors. But these issues were side issues in this book, with the actual story involving petty criminals looking for a big score and an officer moving one foot in front of the other trying to survive a shattering loss. I would have given the story a 3 1/2 if I could have - 3 is too low. I loved the story until the end, when the book just seemed to stop. But I look forward to reading another by this author.

A Spool of Blue Thread: A Novel

"It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon..." This is how Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how she fell in love with Red that day in July 1959. The Whitshanks are one of those families that radiate togetherness: an indefinable, enviable kind of specialness. But they are also like all families, in that the stories they tell themselves reveal only part of the picture.

Flight Behavior

Dellarobia Turnbow is a restless farm wife who gave up her own plans when she accidentally became pregnant at 17. Now, after a decade of domestic disharmony on a failing farm, she encounters a shocking sight: a silent, forested valley filled with what looks like a lake of fire. She can only understand it as a cautionary miracle, but it sparks a raft of other explanations from scientists, religious leaders, and the media.

Barbara Kingsolver is by far the best author/narrator I know. Being a southern appalachia native, I so appreciated her authentic accent in this story which takes place in the Tennessee mountains. And her writing is as beautiful as her voice. But the situations that make up this story, both environmental and relationship, were unrelentingly depressing.

Guests on Earth

When she is thirteen years old, Evalina Toussaint, the orphaned child of an exotic dancer in New Orleans, is admitted as a mental patient to Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. The year is 1936, and the hospital, under the direction of celebrity psychiatrist Robert S. Carroll, is famous for its up-to-the-minute shock therapies and for Dr. Carroll's revolutionary theory of the benefits of non-introspection. Evalina finds herself in the midst of a kaleidoscope of characters, including the estranged wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Being a live-long western North Carolina resident, the only thing I ever knew about Highland Hospital was that Zelda had died there in a fire - and there is so much more to know. Lee Smith has done the research for me, along with her first hand knowledge of Highland, having had family members who were residents at various times. I don't know when I have enjoyed a book so much. The narrator was terrific in spite of occasional mispronunciations, which could be jarring to a native. But she more than made up for that with her just-right narration of this book.

The Care and Management of Lies: A Novel of the Great War

By July 1914, the ties between Kezia Marchant and Thea Brissenden, friends since girlhood, have become strained - by Thea's passionate embrace of women's suffrage, and by the imminent marriage of Kezia to Thea's brother, Tom, who runs the family farm. When Kezia and Tom wed, just a month before war is declared between Britain and Germany, Thea's gift to Kezia is a book on household management - a veiled criticism of the bride's prosaic life to come.

The Water's Lovely

The man who had died was Ismay's stepfather, Guy. Nine years on, she and her sister, Heather, still live in the same house in Clapham. But it has been divided into two self-contained flats. Their mother lives upstairs with her sister, Pamela. And the bathroom, where Guy drowned, has disappeared. Ismay works in public relations, and Heather in catering. They get on well. They always have. They never discuss the changes to the house, still less what happened that August day.

The story was engaging, and I wanted to know what would happen - but frankly was glad when it was over. I cared about Heather and Edmund, but found all of the other characters simply irritating. I've enjoyed Ruth Rendell's books for a long time, but this is not a favorite.

Little Failure: A Memoir

After three acclaimed novels - The Russian Debutante's Handbook, Absurdistan, and Super Sad True Love Story - Gary Shteyngart turns to memoir in a candid, witty, deeply poignant account of his life so far.

Shteyngart shares his American immigrant experience, moving back and forth through time and memory with self-deprecating humor, moving insights, and literary bravado. The result is a resonant story of family and belonging that feels epic and intimate and distinctly his own. Provocative, hilarious, and inventive, Little Failure reveals a deeper vein of emotion in Gary Shteyngart' s prose.

If I could have rated only the narrator, I would have liked to. I could not take his overly theatric narration, so I gave up after a few chapters. It's therefore unfair for me to rate the story and writing since I'm sure I would love the book with a more appropriate reader. Google informs me this narrator is primarily a voice artist for children's animated films, and that makes total sense. Too much emoting from my earbuds.

The Men Who Stare at Goats

In 1979, a secret unit was established by the most gifted minds within the US army. Defying all known accepted military practice - and, indeed, the laws of physics - they believed that a soldier could adopt the cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls and, perhaps most chillingly, kill goats just by staring at them. Entrusted with defending America from all known adversaries, they were the First Earth Battalion. And they really weren't joking. What's more, they're back and fighting the War on Terror.

Having listened to other Ronson books, I could not listen to this one since I love Ronson's delivery. Sorry. The website forced me to rate the story, which I really am not qualified to do since I did not read the book or see the movie. Going by Ronson's other books, however, I'm sure it's a good story.

10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found a Self-Help That Actually Works

After having a nationally televised panic attack on Good Morning America, Dan Harris knew he had to make some changes. A lifelong nonbeliever, he found himself on a bizarre adventure, involving a disgraced pastor, a mysterious self-help guru, and a gaggle of brain scientists.

I've always enjoyed Dan Harris and his team on weekend GMA. So I was very surprised when I first heard him plug his book. I am thrifty with my Audible credits and do not make impulsive purchases with them - but I did in this case and was not disappointed. Such a terrific story and the perfect narrator along with it. Coincidentally I just finished Steve Stossl's "My Age of Anxiety". Harris's book is a great addition to the extensive research Stossl related on the history of anxiety theory and the various approaches to treating it - minus this one. I'm excited to learn more.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Most people think 15-year-old Charlie is a freak. But then seniors Patrick and his beautiful stepsister Sam take Charlie under their wings and introduce him to their eclectic, open-minded, hard-partying friends. It is from these older kids that Charlie learns to live and love.

Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier, 1936-1949

A German soldier during World War II offers an inside look at the Nazi war machine, using his wartime diaries to describe how a ruthless psychopath motivated an entire generation of ordinary Germans to carry out his monstrous schemes.

I don't usually enjoy books about war, but this book kept me interested throughout. The author seems to be a very honest person, although I still find it incomprehensible he could not have at least heard rumors of the concentration camps. His book, however, is very enlightening, being the memories of a soldier deeply engulfed in the German military and a prisoner of war even longer held by the Soviets.

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